'We were mentally tuned to win'
by Tyrell Peiris
Chathura Peiris the Sri Lanka
Under-19 captain, who led his team to a historic 3-2 ODI triumph over
Australia in that country, is all smiles after all the hard work. 'And
Chathura the 18-year old, who is also the captain of the 'alma mater'
St. Peter's College, Bambalapitiya has all the reasons to be so. For he
led the Lanka Under-19 XI to what was Sri Lanka's first ever series win
in Australia at any level of cricket. It was an achievement that our
national team has failed to achieve so far in its 28 years in
international cricket as a member of the International Cricket Council (ICC).
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Chathura
Peiris, Sri Lanka Under-19 captain |
Speaking to the 'Sunday Observer' magazine Chathura attributed the
success of the Lanka Under-19 XI mainly due to team work due to the
great efforts of the coaches.
"The coaches deserve all the praise for knitting this side together
to a winning combination. The contribution by Aravinda de Silva as the
consultant coach helped us a long way. That is because Aravinda had much
to share with us from his vast knowledge having played for Sri Lanka at
the highest level and his match winning performance in the 1995-'96
World Cup final against Australia. Then, overall coach Naveed Nawaz was
a big asset. He also work hard with the team in all areas while Upul
Chandana, the Fielding Coach did much to keep us in good shape when it
came to catching and stopping runs.
Still more importantly, all three coaches worked as a team putting
their knowledge together in one hat", said Chathura who led a 16-man
squad to Australia last month. He observed that Chandana had helped the
team to adjust quickly.
"There was a big improvement from the first match to the last match",
recalled the victorious captain.
As to the success, Chathura commented that he was over the moon." It
is a big achievement for us. We did something that no other team from
this country had done.
No team had won a tournament in that country. In that sense, it was
huge for us teenagers. In fact, when the series was tied at 2-all we
vowed at our team meeting to somehow achieve that elusive feat that had
looked impossible to our national team," mused Chathura Peiris who went
on to touch on some of the strong points that had taken his team to the
top of the mountain against the Aussies. In the batting department all
from the top to the bottom had shown resolve.
"Even the tail-enders spoke to their seniors on the other end in
difficult situations. That helped them to do well. We had a game plan.
Banuka Rajapaksa, the Vice Captain and Royal College batsman was our
mainstay in the batting contributing some 237 runs in all including 150
in one match.
Aravinda tuned us mentally
Then there was Romesh Buddhika from Mahinda College, Galle who always
played the 'Sheet anchor' role. He was solid in any difficult situation
and held the middle order together which was why he was adjudged 'Man of
the Series'.
As to the batting, one big service Coach Aravinda did was
conditioning the team mentally how to face any given situation.
He did not try to change the styles of batsmen. Importantly, he
conditioned us mentally. That went a great way and you can see the
results. Above all, he taught us that cricket is all about a mind game.
Referring to the bowling department Chathura noted that the fast bowlers
had clicked.
"The pacies took advantage of the pace and bouncy Australian
wickets," he said. As to the final decisive match, Chathura said that
his bowlers had performed superbly to restrict the opposition to 122 all
out after his opposite number won the toss and elected to bat. "Saranga
Rajaguru of Nugawela Central, who is a leg-spinner claimed 3 wickets,
off-spinner Jaleel from Trinity College 2 and myself 2 wickets with my
medium pace. In all, Charith Jayampathy, the pacie had a series haul of
9 wickets followed by myself with 8. We replied with 123 for 6 in the
decider played at the Garden Oval. |
